If there were a word to describe ShipBreaker, it would be unique.
Whether that's a good or a bad thing is truly dependent upon the
reader. I've talked to two friends about this book, both of whom have
read it front to back, and they've both told me the same thing—Ship
Breaker lacks plot. This I could
argue with. The plot is what makes it unique, for better or for
worse. I can't decide which. Beyond that, however, most of the
characters are flat.
And, yet, both I and my friends finished
the book with positive feelings towards it.
There is
one aspect about Ship Breaker that
makes it beyond worth reading. Especially for writers, who can learn
plenty by studying basically every page in this book. For example,
All around, the duct pinged and
creaked. It sank slightly, tilting. The whole thing was on the verge
of collapse. Nailer's frantic activity and extra weight had weakened
it.Nailer spread out his weight and lay
still, heart pounding. Trying to sense the duct's intentions. The
metal went quiet. Nailer waited, listening. Finally, he eased
forward, delicately shifting his weight.Metal shrieked. The duct dropped from
under him.
Look at
this writing. Study
it.
Can't you just hear the “metal shriek[ing]” in your ears? Observe
the rise and fall of action in simply this little piece, the
choppiness of “the metal went quiet” to have a brief break from
the action, then the longer, calmer sentence of “Finally, he eased
forward, delicately shifting his weight.” Observe how an adverb,
“delicately,” slows things down. Again, we see the adverb
“slightly,” also used during a situation of calming state. Of
course, most of us probably know that “adverb” is a banned word
in the land of Writing, however, Bacigaupi uses them to his own
advantage.
That's
the first thing we can learn from Ship Breaker:
Adverbs can be used as a tool for us to slow down
writing amidst heavier action.
Observe,
also, the verbs he uses. Within this passage, the verbs used are:
pinged, creaked,
sank, tilting,
was, (had)
weakened, spread,
lay, pounding,
trying, went,
waited, listening,
eased, shifting,
shrieked, and dropped.
Go on, through that list, and find for me the verb that repeats
itself. Haven't found it? Look harder. Still haven't found it?
There's
a reason for that. Not a single one repeats. Wanna know more? I went
and took an excerpt of 250
words. Then, I went through
and marked every verb within the text.
Thirty-four
verbs. Twenty-five different
verbs. The only verbs he
repeated was was four
times, had two times,
and did three times.
Go, take a page of your own writing, to give you some perspectives,
and try this out. See how many unique verbs you have for that page.
Verbs may come easily to you,
as every writer has their weak and strong points, or you may find
that you, like myself, repeated “made” four times in the last
paragraph. In other words, remember to vary which verbs
you use within a period of space.
Additionally, keep in mind the quality of
your verbs.
Nailer clambered through a service
duct, tugging at copper wire and yanking it free. Ancient asbestos
fibers and mouse grit puffed up around him as the wire tore loose. He
scrambled deeper into the duct, jerking more wire from its aluminium
staples. The staples pinged around the cramped metal passage like
coins offered to the Scavenge God, and Nailer felt after them
eagerly, hunting for their dull gleam and collecting them in a
leather bag he kept at his waist. He yanked again at the wiring. A
meter's worth of precious copper tore loose in his hands and dust
clouds enveloped him.
And...
A year later, heavy crews cut open a
section of iron, and the little licebiter's mummified body had popped
out like a pill from a blister pack. Dry like leaves, rattling as it
hit the deck, rats chewed and desiccated.
Observe
the quality of verbs used in these two excerpts (the first one comes
straight from the first paragraph of the book.) Clambered,
puffed, rattling,
and desiccated all
stick out to me. They paint the picture, because you
cannot simply choose impressive
verbs, but you must also choose those that set the tone and feel of
your setting, scene, and story.
Enveloped, for
example, combined with dust clouds paints
the picture in my head within few words.
That all being said, though we can learn
much from the writing, the characters are highly underdeveloped.
While I saw potential in Nailer's crew, they were not returned to
much more than Nailer's history after the first few chapters. Nailer
himself was alright. We could see a deep connection with him and the
reader. It took me a while to develop emotional connection (though
that may be because of his and my opposite personalites), but once I
did I found myself highly invested in him. Nita, too, probably the
second most main character (though it's hard to say, with the unusual
plot structure, which I'll hit on soon), you could see development in
her. There were a couple others who I couldn't criticize.
However,
a couple stuck out to me. The feeling of cardboard came from these
characters. First off, Sadna. Nailer's friend, Pima's, mother, was a
sort of hero in the story. Admirable, strong, and just—but simply
filler. Not enough was invested into her. She was there for the
purpose she served, but not there because she was alive.
The woman was there because she was needed for the plot. Of course,
she had genuine emotions, a genuine personality, but it was obvious
the development on her was mediocre. It was like she was a storybook
character, not like she was a real person to me. And, as it is the
writer's job to imitate life, I want to be unable to believe that a
character does not actually exist.
Additionally, I found the same feeling in minor characters. Goons
like Blue Eyes and Moby,
truthfully all the half-men except perhaps Tool I found a lack of
life. Many characters were there only out of necessity. Not because
they were real, to the readers and perhaps even to the author.
Therefore, we can learn yet another thing from this book, though
taken from a flaw: Your characters must not only exist
because of necessity for the plot, setting, main character, etc.;
they must also be alive, and living simply because they demanded to
be so.
Then, that leads me to the plot.
Oh, the plot.
Oh,
what
shall I do with the likes of thee?
The plot is in a structure unlike
anything I've ever seen before. That doesn't say much, but it's
certainly unique. As I stated above, I've heard twice the plot
doesn't exist. I wouldn't necessarily agree with this. While there is
no traditional plot structure, it is a plot that's more similar to
real life. The plot is really more a retelling of someone's life,
which truthfully brings the story a little more to life, right?
Nonetheless, Bacigaupi links together pieces of his plot from the
past. Everything builds on each other. His character development is
impressive for this reason, as situations from the past build on his
decisions in the future.
(spoiler) We can cut the plot down into a
few events. First, you've got your foundation. This is covered during
chapter one. The story is laid out for you: Nailer's character, his
life, and the kick-starter for the story—the first, initial
conflict, with his competitiveness with his crewmates as well as the
danger of not getting enough loot from the ship. This story is not
about this first conflict. It merely kicks it off. Second phase is
the struggle of him being lost in the ship, which was caused by the
first initial conflict. Chapters two through four cover this. Then,
five through seven cover the conflict of the storm. Now, our third
“arc” of sorts is not bounced off the first conflict. So, you may
be wondering why you have the first two conflicts in the first place?
The third arc covers the storm. Through
this storm, a ship is brought onto the shore, where Nailer finds
Nita. The entire conflict with Nita is when the story's main
storyline really kicks off. Through this, he goes through struggling
with what to do with her, how to respond to this, battling against
his father, loyalty to his home and the struggle of having to leave
it. Then, a step into a new life, where he leaves his difficulties in
the old behind. So, why did we have those first two arcs?
Had Nailer never been caught in the ship,
had he never almost drowned in the oil, never been abandoned by
Sloth, he wouldn't have saved Nita. Easily we could have skipped
this, been brought right into the storm, and I would be that one of
Bacigalupi's first drafts did just this. However, I can see him
reaching the point with Nita where he's stuck—Nailer is going to
abandoned her, and where does that leave the story? So we see
character development with Nailer. Through the first two, seemingly
unrelated arcs, they're binded to the rest of the story as his
character develops—influencing more than one action in his future
of the book—and at the same time we get to know Nailer and his
world, a little before the story even starts. A minor thing you can
take from this is simply don't forget how your character
develops. Look for unique ways to have decisions later
in the book influenced by previous scenes. Have your
scenes build on each other, so that without the one before, the next
scene would be different.
You can learn a lot from studying just
one book. This book definitely has its flaws, but it also has things
done brilliantly, and you can learn from both parts of the book. That
being said, I highly recommend the read. I've never read a book that
pulled me into the setting so much. If you were to read it for
anything at all, it would be that. So, if you've read Ship
Breaker, what's your review on it? What would you change if you
could? How do you feel about the things listed here in your own
writing? Debating is encouraged. Commenting even more encouraged.
Thanks for reading!
